The sides are expected to continue negotiating on a long-term deal, but that cannot be finalized until Jan. 1, 2012, as per the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

About the Parise settlement, Arnott told Gulitti:

“The bigger issue is we’re facing a bit of a deadline here of next week on arbitration that the club elected and we were only dealing with one year on that basis. That’s primarily where our focus has been recently and that’s what’s caused a settlement.”

While no one is doubting Arnott’s ability to multi-task — not to mention, he must have plenty of staff to work on these matters — it seems he might have more time now to focus on getting Marchand and the Bruins to come to an agreement. The restricted free-agent’s representative told ESPNBoston.com earlier this week that negotiations were at an early stage. So far, neither side has even hinted at any type of an impasse.